How China is Taking Over the World

China is taking over the world. That is a sentiment often uttered in jest but there is a lot of truth behind that statement. Remember, there is a little (or a lot of) truth in every joke and often times people don’t take the Chinese seriously because Westerners don’t understand them.
One in five people on Earth are Chinese and they are certainly everywhere. The Chinese diaspora is so massive that you can throw a dart at a map and find a community of Chinese anywhere. That said, they aren’t doing it the old fashioned way. Here is how China is taking over the world.

In the old days of imperial rule; when invasions were the norm and England, France, Portugal, Spain and others took turns ruling the world so to speak-it was simple. You ruled the country you conquered or bought. But that proved to bring a lot of headaches. Look at the how West Africa brought nothing but problems to the French or those pesky American patriots took down the British.
Those days are long gone. Who wants to deal with governing or ruling people in modern times? Nobody…especially not China; they’re too smart for that. Look how great it’s gone for the United States while “occupying” a few nations recently after conflicts!
What modern day nations want is land, natural resources, minerals, rights to drill, mine or do as they please. Seems pretty obvious right? However, China is actually doing it. I have been saying this for years and it is happening everywhere.

I first noticed it about 5-6 years ago in East Africa. When you leave the airport in Nairobi, Kenya you are greeted by a bunch of signs in Chinese. This is commonplace in Africa. As I traveled more on the continent I saw it more often. After talking with people on the ground, it is true. The Chinese are taking over.
However, they are doing it brilliantly. They are using diplomacy. They are buying massive plots of land in both developing and developed nations. The Chinese have money and it certainly does talk.

The idea of soft power in foreign policy and non-interference has opened the door for China to countries ostracized by the West-for example African nations. And the Chinese are capitalizing. Look at these figures from 2012!
In poor nations within the African continent, aside from some bribe money for the ruling warlord, they also build much needed infrastructure to help the country. However, the brilliance is it also helps China. It makes it easier for them to mine and transport what they find across paved roads, bridges, ports, airports and other infrastructure.

China does this all over the developing world, especially where money and infrastructure is needed the most. But it is not limited to poor nations. China recently tried to buy and build a special administrative region or zone in Idaho in the United States. Thankfully that was blocked-for now. But that doesn’t mean they won’t try again in the US and it certainly doesn’t mean they won’t do it in other countries.
I am currently in Western Australia where the Chinese are buying up land left and right. Talk to locals on the ground here and they can’t stand it. That said, the mining industry has made many of them very wealthy. It is not uncommon for 20 year old kids that dropped out of high school making $300-$400, 000 a year mining.

The Chinese are buying land, they are buying houses and they are drilling and exploring those lands. They pay hefty price tags so people sell. And why not? It’s hard to blame people for trying to make money even if you don’t like who are selling to. It’s called business.
So soon, the Chinese will have more real estate than you can possibly imagine and I am talking everywhere there may be some valuable land. They are smart, they are rich and they are quiet about it.

You never see crazy stuff happening on CNN in China. Seriously, since Tiananmen Square in 1989, when was the last time you heard or saw much of anything from China other than the 2008 Olympics in Beijing?

They don’t do brash things. They don’t get too loudly involved in global media or politics and they keep their own stuff internal. Yes, sad to say (human right aside), but communism seems to be working for them in a lot of ways.
The new China has more money than they know what to do with and they’ve realized they can manipulate world markets and currencies-see the US dollar and the amount of US debt they own! This is scary. However, it’s not like it’s Germany in the World Wars. They really aimed to take over the world but they bit off more than they could chew. China is a lot smarter and more stealth.

They are speaking quietly and carrying a big stick…err wallet! You won’t see them coming but if you haven’t already, you will notice them everywhere. The new power isn’t military might or who turns out Hollywood hits; it’s ownership; it’s rights; it’s control; it’s money…that is the new power. That is what China is doing.

And maybe it’s about time. Did I mention one in five people on Earth are Chinese? China has more than 100 cities with more than 1 million residents? Depending what numbers you look at, the US has 9. Australia has 4. Canada has 4. You get the point.
China is taking over the world and there isn’t a damn thing we can do to stop it.

Note: This is not an endorsement for or against China and certainly not an endorsement for communism. It is simply a post I’ve written based on years of observations and conversation with people regarding this subject.

Comments

Now this is a blog post! Great post, Lee! This is how all posts should be. Show an issue that many don’t know about based on personal experiences. You must’ve seen something out there that motivated you to write this. But you still did it in a funny, easy to get, but still getting your point across kind of way, which is why people like you. Good for you.

Thanks, Lee for pointing out what has been happening later these years. This is a great post. However, this is also an alarming post. I am from Myanmar, I am not sure about how China is overtaking; I mean the way they use to approach the government and to get the permits or rights to do so in their countries.I am from Myanmar (Burma); have you heard about my country? I know how Chinese are overtaking in our country. The news are not quite good, they approach our pro-military government (though we got democracy government in 2011, most of the MP are still Military-officers cum civilians) with bribery and they are getting a lot of permits in construction, city development, mining, aviation etc. They even thumb and force our citizens to abandon lands, houses by taking our corrupted government. This is a whole lot of tyranny though we got so called democracy.

After reading your post, I really dont know what to say. Is it alarming or scary or out of control? Is the fact of Chinese is taking over the world already a scary fact? Just speechless, I just hope there is no tyranny on this earth. May god bless you all.

Nihao!! We have a saying in our country, when you are a frog leaping in a pond, its only natural for you to think that the pond is the biggest ocean of the world. now for generations, globalisation and the american dream as portrayed in the broad western media depicts very unhealthy features, unhindered capitalism, fast food culture, resource conflicts maimed as attempt to remove ‘WMDs and possible threat’ etc. Now why are the Chinese buying land and resources all over the world. With a managed exchange rate for the Yuan, China will probably have current account balance positive for sometime to come. so what to do with all the excess cash. buy us treasuries?? yes thats what they have been mostly doing. but with QE1, QE2. QE3.. QE Infinitum… China fears it may be left with US treasuries on which the government of US will default!! what then?? So this diversification by China is only a hedge against the worsening of the US debt problem. Now i dont think most Americans realise how the actions of their govt have negative repurcussions worldwide. Since the mid 1970s the price of oil has rallied over 8 times. in my home currency i first started driving car running Octane at 14.75 taka for a litre in 1997. now its 100 taka for a litre . in dollar terms meanwhile my currency bangladesh taka has devalued approx 100% against the US dollar. that means in dollar terms the price of oil has gone up 3 times since 1997. the resource conflicts that the us has produced since 9/11 in the name of extermination of radical outfits that post a potential threat to us interests has balooned us deficits further and further. it has also helped the rally of commodites like gold, oil, etc. ever since america stepped out of the bretton woods system the FED has been printing more and more. Americans have been initially and perhaps even this today fascinated by this. the chinese have played along. they have dumped us market with cheaper and cheaper chinese goods, sometimes with hefty subsidies. now that the market has been built by dumping China has effectively created barriers to entry by new nations, such that many newer emerging and developed economies depend on China for everything from computers to smartphones and on. So this symbiotic relationship of US vs China trade where US buys Chinese goods and Chinese buy US Treasury bonds that finance the same shopping by the US has led to todays situation. there is no panacea to this. the Us and its citizens need to be productive again like their forefathers who rebuilt the world since WWII. Macdonals and the likes should be replaced by sushi houses or some other healthier food that helps us take better care of its citizens with less health care costs. then americans need to reach out to the world not with massive aircraft carriers strike forces but with the peace corps. i am sure the results will be better than the chinese. cos more than 50% of the people in the 2nd and 3rd world still languish in poverty under 2 dollars a day. for them life is not only about money. its about living with dignity, peace and sharing something i think the US government has forgotten. I hope enlightened citizens of the Us will come forward and save themselves, their nation and the world.

Mr Lee I request you to talk to mr jim rogers and mr marc faber sometime. it will be nice to have you to be introduced to them. these two men have in any varying degrees expounded greatly on the FED printing press for sometime now. mr jim rogers has resettled in Singapore and making his children learn Mandarin. Its the new economic reality which he has personally accepted in his life. Mr. Marc Faber is probably based out of Chiangmai, Thailand and has an office in Hong Kong. Niall Ferguson is also a great economic historian of our times.

The succes of the west is all based on former imperialism. Everything, from territory to education; Eventually it will all dry up and new leaders will rise. I wonder what the world will look like in 100 year.

As I see the West is collapsing, thats why I have to spread my DNA in countries like Thailand,China and Brazil and so on 🙂 But kidding aside I have lived in China for three years and it is a very impressive Country, what is most impressing is their “Determination” to be successful, it looks as they really have a plan. Coming from Europe I was pretty impressed that even a small town in China has more Skyscrapers, beautiful ones not those ugly blocks, than most capital cities in Europe.